Grace Hopper Is The Computer Queen | Letterman

United States Navy rear admiral Grace Hopper talks about her pioneering work in the computer field.
(From "Late Night," air date: 10/2/86)

#gracehopper #navy #letterman

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[larryconlin]

When I was a Data Processing Technician 3rd Class in 1986 she spoke at a conference in Virginia Beach. All the seats where taken by senior officers. She walked in and asked the officers to stand up because she wanted "her" Data Processors to sit down front. I still have one of her nano seconds. Almost 40 years later I am still working in the computer field and always remember her speech as one of the things that inspired me to stay in the Navy and to continue with Information Systems as a career.

[agluebottle]

Rdml Hopper was the GOAT. And funny as hell too. Incredible person.

[liammcooper]

Her explanation of the nano-second is genius.

[tietosanakirja]

NSA just published an internal lecture by Grace Hopper from the 80's, right here on youtube. It felt like time travel and her great personality was on full display.

[envitech]

No one can believe that this HUGE legend was packed in such a tiny frame!!. She is to programmers (now known as coders), what Henry Ford is to cars. RIP RADML Grace Hopper! May your name lives forevermore in the vastness of the Internet.

[spootnewton]

If you are young and in a tech industry today, you are standing on the shoulders of giants.

[axiomist]

It wasnt mentioned that she discovered the first computer "bug". One time the computer crashed and they had to find out why. Now, back then computers had tubes, big glass tubes (transistors didnt exist yet), so they looked and looked and finally found out that a moth, being attracted to the light of the tube had made contact with it and burned, thus shorting it out. She found the moth, which is now in a museum and since then, anything which causes a computer to make an error or crash, is called a "bug" and the process of finding it is called "debugging" the computer (could be in the software as well). It was so exciting for me to finally see her, live and talking.

[hardstarboard]

I retired from the Navy and knew of Adm Hopper, but had no idea she appeared on Letterman. This 9 and a half minute video was one of the most enjoyable I've ever seen, and makes me proud to have worn the same uniform she did. What a brilliant mind she was.

[StreakingTiger]

When I was in my early 30's, about 40 years ago, I had the privilege of actually meeting and talking to this brilliant woman. She was the guest speaker at our local DPMA (Data Processing Management Association) meeting in Greenville SC. She gave everyone a short piece of wire that represented how far light travels in a nanosecond. I kept that piece of wire for 20+ years and always thought about what she did for information technology. I'm retired now, but spent 40+ years in Information Technology.

[clurkroberts]

I had the honor meeting the Admiral in the 80s. She delivered a speech to Memorex Computer Technology Symposium. I was impressed with her knowledge, and command of speech and the audience. Go Navy!

[MarcusHammarberg]

> How did you know so much about the computers?
> I didn't - this was the first one

What an amazing person!

[carlosenriquegonzalez-isla]

They should make a movie about this woman!

[VisionPlanetMedia]

In another video RADL Hopper explained how the term ‘computer bug’ came to be: the MARK1 went down and they opened it up to see if one of the vacuum tubes had shorted out and found a large moth had shorted one of the contacts. They removed the moth and taped it into the logbook. This the term computer bug came to describe software errors. What an amazingly brilliant and humorous person she was.

[kstepko]

What a phenomenal woman! Dave was always willing to use his celebrity to highlight ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

[DesignBuildExecute]

One of the most brilliant minds to walk this Earth. Dave had no idea how lucky he was to have met her.

[MeltWithU]

For anybody 37 learning computers for the first time, is a task. Now be 37 and learn the first computer so well that you can write a manual for other people to be able to use that computer. That is amazing. What an amazing woman. The experiences she had in her life, truly awe inspiring.

[privatepenguin]

Grace is STILL honored today with conferences and events named in her honor....a navy ship named after her....and I think one of the schools of Yale is also named after her.

[mjp]

Everything I have ever done in my professional life - I owe to Grace Hopper ‼❣

[stereoroid]

In case anyone's curious: she mentioned Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which was acquired by Compaq, which was acquired by Hewlett Packard.

[jaberwoky_]

What a legend! No idea how I missed this episode of Letterman back in the day. I was a batch COBOL programmer at the start of my career. One of the most elusive software bugs to find was a missing period.